1. Field of the Present Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle including a body frame that is able to lean and two front wheels that are aligned side by side in a left-and-right direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle including a body frame that is able to lean and two front wheels that are aligned side by side in the left-and-right direction is well known through International Patent Publication No. 2014/065396 or the like. In general, the vehicle including the body frame that is able to lean and the two front wheels that are aligned side by side in the left-and-right direction is able to turn with the body frame inclined or caused to lean relative to a vertical direction. More specifically, the body frame leans to the right of the vehicle when the vehicle turns right, whereas when the vehicle turns left, the body frame leans to the left of the vehicle. In this vehicle, a space defined between the two front wheels that are aligned side by side in the left-and-right direction of the body frame is narrower than a space defined between two front wheels of a general four-wheeled motor vehicle. The vehicle including the two front wheels that are aligned in the left-and-right direction and the body frame that is able to lean is compact in size in the left-and-right direction.
The vehicle described in International Patent Publication No. 2014/065396 includes a parallelogram type linkage that supports the two front wheels so as to be displaced in up-and-down directions of the body frame relative to the body frame and shock absorbers that support the two front wheels so as to be displaced in the up-and-down directions of the body frame relative to the linkage to absorb shocks from a road surface.
The parallelogram type linkage is disposed above the two front wheels. Due to this, the vehicle equipped with the parallelogram type linkage is compact in size in relation to the left-and-right direction of the body frame, compared with a vehicle equipped with a double wishbone type linkage disposed between the two front wheels.
The parallelogram type linkage includes cross members and side members. The cross members are supported on the body frame so as to turn about axes that extend in the front-and-rear direction of the body frame. The side members are connected to left portions and right portions of the cross members so as to turn about axes that extend in the front-and-rear direction of the body frame. Namely, the cross members and the side members that define the parallelogram type linkage turn about the axes that extend in the front-and-rear direction of the body frame. Due to this, when the parallelogram type linkage operates, a movable range where the cross members and the side members pass is small in the front-and-rear direction of the body frame.
In this way, the vehicle equipped with the parallelogram type linkage that is described in International Patent Publication No. 2014/065396 is a vehicle that is compact in size in the left-and-right direction and the front-and-rear direction of the body frame.
In the vehicle described in International Patent Publication No. 2014/065396, it is desired that a maximum angle at which the vehicle is inclined or caused to lean to the left-and-right direction of the vehicle (hereinafter, referred to as a maximum banking angle) is increased greatly. Increasing a distance between a right member including a right shock absorber and a right front wheel and a left member including a left shock absorber and a left front wheel in the left-and-right direction of the body frame so as to avoid the interference of the right member with the left member increases the maximum banking angle.
However, in case a dimension in the left-and-right direction of the cross members is increased to increase the distance between the right member and the left member, the vehicle is enlarged in size in the left-and-right direction. In particular, as a result of the distances from the turning centers of the cross members about which the cross members turn relative to the body frame to the left and right side members becoming long, the movable range of the linkage when the linkage operates is enlarged not only in the left-and-right direction but also in an up-and-down direction of the body frame.